With just a few more weeks to go until Muse unleash their fifth studio album The Resistance upon the world and their adoring fans, I decided to review my favourite Muse album ‘Absolution’. Released in September 2003, it explores Muse’s fear of the world ending, areas of atheism and romance as well as bringing in genres of classical music, jazz and various other surprises along the way. If you know me well, you will know I absolutely adore Muse but I have approached this review with the upmost feeling of non-bias towards the band and enjoyed/reviewed the album for the music it contains rather than the music that I like. Hopefully it’ll be up to your standards, so… enjoy”
1) Apocalypse Please - Opening with a drumming beat of footsteps gradually progressing in their volume, a striking piano riff storms upon the listener into the song. “Declare this an emergency” screams Bellamy, and you can definitely feel the sense of urgency not only being sang out in despair but from the song itself musically. Whereas the title takes reference to the classic film Apocalypse Now, this song feels in a different world – it almost screams in pain that the end is nigh, an apocalyptic cry from Bellamy on vocals accompanied with the piano works wonders for the song personally. It opens the album with a taste of what to expect in the next 50 minutes or so – loud, brash messages thrown through bass lines, drum-riffs, pianos, synth, the likes. As an individual song, it works. As an opener it works even better. Excellent! 84%
2) Time is Running Out – Arguably one of the poppiest songs on the album, it remains to this day as one of the Muse’s most loved from the fans. Created by a fantastic backing bassline and the clicking of fingers creating the tempo, the song continues the ‘end of the world’ feel originating from Apocalypse Please. It’s certainly a massive distance away from the riffs and distortion of Muse’s previous album, but TIRO will get stuck in your head when you hear it. The bass and the drums are what make the song so fantastically addictive – you hear those notes shoot out at you from the bass as soon as the song starts and it runs the entire length. A little overplayed since the release of Absolution but still a definite highlight and one song that has stayed in Muse’s back catalogue of excellence with the fans for a long, long time since it’s first play. 90%
3) Sing for Absolution – After two electrifyingly momentous songs to introduce fans to Absolution, the record gets it’s first slower song in Sing for Absolution. A dreamy, almost galactic feeling cry of forgiveness that contributed to the album title obviously hears the trio back on piano with very little guitar, much in the same way Apocalypse Please did, but in a far slower, softer context. Bellamy’s vocals works wonderfully with the piano and synth in the background in keeping the pace of the song interesting enough to work but not dull enough to simply see the song getting skipped. Lyrically, it’s a highlight for me because of how strangely well it works as a love song - “There's nowhere left to hide, In no one to confide, the truth burns deep inside, and will never die” – yes it’s simple, but it just goes beautifully with what the song is expressing musically. By the end, after a calm, relaxed intro, the song ends on a louder, angrier tone with heavier guitars and Bellamy almost screaming his way into the outro. Underrated but not brilliant. 82%
4) Stockholm Syndrome – Heavy guitar. Huge bass riff. Gargantuan drums. I can’t think of enough expressions to sum up how massive, how wonderfully huge, how expansive Stockholm Syndrome truly is. The lyrics are nothing to write home about (although ‘This is the last time I’ll forget you!'' makes me want to scream it out in sheer delight"!) but for a song that prides itself on heavy guitar riffs and a bassline that could crack a safe, it’s easily one of the angriest romantic songs you’ll hear. Stockholm Syndrome really is completely brilliant though. From the moment the guitar opens the song to that massive outro of sheer headbanging glee for you rockers, I simply cannot criticise the song in any way or any form. Even the length is perfect, as I personally dislike songs that are less than 3 minutes in length and anything in 4/5 minutes length, for me, is just about right and the criteria matches for Stockholm Syndrome. Plus the guitar riff is up there with Muse’s best. Is this Muse’s best song ever? Arguable. Is this the best song on Absolution? Oh Yes. 97%
5) Falling Away with You – Wow. What a comedown after the mountainous reaches of screaming caused from Stockholm Syndrome. FAWY can fit into the category of romance once more, expressing the deprecation of the world around a person in love from the feeling of falling away with them, obviously. It’s a lovely song – the chorus is simple but works well enough. Musically, its simply guitars and drum tapping that take the song by it’s hand but it’s surprising to hear how non-existent Wolstenholme sounds on the bass, a shame for a man of his talent. I would probably say that this isn’t the correct genre for Muse as whilst the song does work, you just feel like it’s kind of feels like filler. 70%
6) Hysteria – In much the same was as Time is Running out, the bassline absolutely helps make this song a classic Muse tune. It has snarling guitar bashing throughout and cymbals crashing like a menacing ocean but that bassline you hear nonstop just absolutely makes Hysteria. It’s surprising how short the song is, especially whilst listening – time absolutely flies through it’s 3 minute length but it’s short and very sweet, with a gorgeously paradisical guitar solo towards the end. The solo actually feels contradictory to the general frustration portrayed through Bellamy’s lyrics and vocals - “I want you now!” he screams out, yet the guitar solo sounds as if the song reaches a complete different level of pleasure once it finishes. Definitely a highlight of Absolution and of Muse’s complete portfolio. Excellent bass. Excellent sound. Excellent Hysteria. 95%
7) Blackout – This is a strange one to analyse. It sounds like a song drifting down the Venetian canals on a summer afternoon with an orchestra guiding you along, with the song consisting of a string orchestra creating the main ballad whilst Bellamy softly sings along to simple cymbal taping. Being a love song, it ticks the boxes of a romantic cliche but it’s a lovely song without a doubt – just feels at times as if it lacks a little pace. It could be argued that the slow pace of the song makes it better to the context in which it’s sang, which it definitely adds to, but it’s a little out of Muse’s comfort zone. Although the solo with the electric synthesized guitar is the true highlight of the song alongside a cascading choir of violins and other strings. Lovely, but perhaps a little too lovely. 76%
8) Butterflies and Hurricanes – I can’t stress enough how epic this song feels. Really, an absolute epic. It slowly builds up from simply vocals and orchestra, but begins building into this gargantuan sounding of modern classical music, as completely contradictory as that sounds. The pace of the song runs beautifully, with a Formula 1 racing-style pace as it rushes along building more and more noise with piano, bass, drums, more orchestra, backing vocals, brilliant!! In contrast to other songs, with their apocalyptic or romantic message, B&H is incredibly optimistic and upbeat - “Best!! You’ve got to be the Best”! – again going in tandem with the pace of the song fantastically. The entire song is broken into two parts, if you will, by a piano solo by Matt Bellamy that could be confused with such composers as Chopin or Rachmaninov. The solo is elegant, managing to keep that pace that the song build up to towards this climax but adding a modern twist upon the world of classical music. It’s a very brave song, considering how much it mixes Muse’s modern sound with traditional classical music, but my god does it work. 94%
9) The Small Print – We jump from the inspirations of classical music to a sudden in-your-face classic rock song that goes back to the lyrical bias of desperation and anger that has been seen earlier in the album. The Small Print’s musical foundations are built from Bellamy’s heavy guitar and a crunching bassline from Wolstenholme that see TSP simply scream into your mind. We also get a bit more insight into the atheist beliefs of Bellamy and the band through the Small Print, something that goes into deeper thought later in the album. However the Small Print is a pretty good song – nothing hugely memorable but loud, brash and heavier than anything else on Absolution minus Stockholm Syndrome. 80%
10) Fury – To this day I’m incredibly upset about Fury. Basically, the song only appeared on the Japanese version of Absolution, and was scheduled to replace The Small Print worldwide until Dom/Chris outvoted Matt to keep TSP on, and leave Fury off for Japan. The reason why it upsets me so much is that Fury is simply sensational – and yet millions of fans worldwide may not get to hear it because it was simply released as a B-side to a single rather than on the full album. Fury has such an exotic feel about it for me, with the rhythm screaming out arabian nights-style themes with that gorgeously epic bassline that stands above Bellamy’s softly spoken vocals. At just under 5 minutes, it’s reasonably lengthy but, for me, has one of Muse’s must genius choruses. Again Bellamy almost innocently sings out against a song that creates so much power in it’s sound, with the chorus hearing the guitar run back and forth through notes, whilst Bellamy himself sings out against his sins in the hope of no God hurting him for his actions. If it were on the full album worldwide, it would rival Stockholm Syndrome for me. It’s an absolutely mind-blowing song I feel, it creates such an incredible aura and sense of powerful in the way the song conveys it’s message of sin, and just such a highlight that every Muse fan should hunt down. 96%
11) Endlessly – Absolution takes a turn towards the genre of Jazz as endlessly is a calm romantic entry towards the album. It’s an extremely simple song in comparison to some of it’s neighbours alongside it in the album, sounding something you’d hear in a jazz club on a Friday night from a small band rather than the over the top, apocalyptic end of the world paranoia that Muse have achieved in various other songs on the album. It’s quite conceptual in that aspect for the band because it’s so different to a lot of their other stuff – the bass feels so non-existant and the drums sound so stripped down, but it has this wonderful synth in the chorus that mixes with these aspects to create the chilled atmosphere the song is obviously striving for. Bellamy’s vocals work once more with the romantic message being conveyed and it’s a lovely little song, just feels kind of out of place on the album. The mini-solo with the organ is absolutely lovely though but again, sounds very out of place. 69%
12) Thoughts of a Dying Atheist – The song that inspired the name of this blog, huzzah! ToaDA is another fast paced entry into the album based off the guitars and bassline more than anything that, as previously described, seen to absolutely fly by in terms of time. It explores once more the religious aspect of the band’s beliefs in terms of their fear of death and the afterlife that so many religions describe, as the title of the song so easily describes. It’s a great little song though, again just being a typical rock song rather than falling into a particular genre of music elsewhere. Once more we get a guitar solo from Bellamy that adds to the length and breaks the pace in which the verses and choruses seem to come out at, and the fear of death and being an atheist in wonder combined with the constantly moving pace helps makes the song a valuable addition to the album. 83%
13) Ruled by Secrecy - Sadly even the best things in life have to end, and closing Absolution is the truly magnificent Ruled by Secrecy. Opening with a sombre piano and the exasperated vocals of Bellamy almost nasally singing about change in the air alongside a basic bassline and simple drum tapping. The opening minute or two makes it seem as if this loud album, constantly screaming out in frustration then switching to a more personal level at times, is ending on a low key with RbS but just as it feels the song loses all kind of pace musically, it crashes into a sea of piano, cymbals and basslines smashing together to create a hugely effective dramatic exit. Once the song turns into this huge song, it really adds to the atmosphere and cries of despair that previous songs had done so well to create and makes Ruled by Secrecy such a sweetly beautiful and yet screamingly desperate song to end with. It slowly builds down after the crash back to a sudden ending and echo to leave Absolution in the memory of it’s listeners. Fantastic outro for the album and a fantastically beautiful song in it’s own right. 91%.
So that’s Absolution by Muse. If you’re wondering, the average percentage turned out to be 85% (with Fury) or 84% (without Fury), which are both in general is a very fair scores I feel considering how much I love the band, and how totally unfair and biased it could have been! Hopefully the review was fine to read too as if this turned out to be moderately successful, I will indeed other music albums from other bands in the future. Concerning Absolution, it’s still easily my favourite album but nothing is perfect – everything is bound to have flaws. Perhaps you will feel I have been too easy going on some songs, or perhaps not critical enough but that’s the thing about opinions - you can never make everyone happy! I do absolutely recommend this to any real fan of music with an open mind that appreciates all areas of rock – whether it be slower, more romantically biased, general rock or those who prefer an over the top symphonic approach to music, it accommodates to all audiences and the entire albums flows so beautifully well. Muse’s next album, The Resistance, is out on 14th September and is already being called Muse’s ‘biggest and bravest masterpiece’ by different media outlets, so it does make me wonder… how excellent must it be to beat Absolution? Only time will tell my friends.
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